Historical records matching Moses Haim Montefiore

"...services were held yesterday by the Rev. I, Ii. Fireman, at which appropriate reference was made to the death of Sir MosesMontefiore. The usual prayer on the death of eminent persons was recited in memory ... lodged iu his side. It is feared that he will not r* cover. He is an esteemahle young man. and much sympathy is felt for him and his family.
Memorial Services.
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are lying on the floor in my room one bas an item about me.
What ... for with Democrat to money.
I challenge a denial.
Many of the lecturers in attendance got free passes and cash from Democratic..."

"...ILLUSTRIOUS SIR
MOISES MONTEFIORE.
A Life of Over One ll and re-1 Year*, Devoted to Helping His Fellowmen, Closed—Si,ort Sketch of a Noble Career.
London, July 29.—The death of Sir MosesMontefiore, the great ... -maiiship Hir MosesMontefiore gave to philanthropy.
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.
Trying to Censure John Bright.
London, July 29. —In the hon <• of commons Tuesday night Mr. Cailan’g motion to censure John Bright ... as the “Southern Cable,’’ is broken.
London, July So. —The steamer Minia has picked up both ends of the second American (Gould) cable. The connection will he made within a dav cr tm.
SORROW IN ISRAEL
DEATH OF /THE ... Hebrew philanthropist, who, in October last, celebrated the 100th anniversary of his birth,..."

"...'t be ton exciting on the innocent and quiet co ii US* tm it s. They may commence playing mumble-peg or leap fn >g.
I n todays issue appears a nu ,re extended biographical BKcleli of Sir MosesMonte-fiore ... buggies, which combine comfort, beauty and strength.
A porch roof steps and platform for sale. J. VV. Sii in:n.
Memorial Service*.
Memorial services upon tjue day of General Grant’s funeral will be held ... ** tree of knowledge or place a guutd about it so that man could not sin?
Leon arg.
Obituary.
After a brief, but severe illness, Mi** Bflit* McDowell died Inst evening about 7 o'clock at the homo of her ... parents on east Garden street. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. ii...."

"...of Britflits After further debate Callans motion was MOSES MOJfTJKFIOltE The Aaca Philanthropist ut Xiifc of Over n Century nt an July MosesMontefiore died at his homo at Rauisgate at oclock this Too Late ... In Ruogrniihy Tliouch he conlil spell and read quite And cipher ho could not toll The least thing In But wlmt a chancel How passing strange I This stampcollccttiiK pmslon Has lotisert Ills for woo or And list ... will was cruzcil with grief when her son jumped to his death from Brooklyn Now ishe will to make money out of a biotj ruphy him that shu has Por didnt deserve Quito nil tho ostentatious sympathy she The most ... memorial In view of the latest political scandal and disgraceful light over Langtry..."

"...last He in eldest daughter of the William SIB MOSES THE death of this venerable philanthropist took place from physical exhaustion on the afternoon of the at halfpast at his house near Sir Moses ... has accomplished for the benefit of the Sir Moses was a Fellow of the Royal and received from the Sultan the distinction of the order pf Amid every sign of public respect the funeral of Sir Moses ... Montefiore took place on the in the mausoleum which already contained the remains of wife of the venerable The shops in Bamsgate were closed and funeral procession was numerous and CHILD LABOUE is to the laist ... Roths founder of the and to this alliance it was partly due that MosesMontefiore was able to retire early..."

"...of the abduction of Jewish child Mortara in He proceeded to but his intercession with Car dinal Antonetli waa a and he not even admitted to an audience of the In 1862 Lady Montefiore died leaving no and Sir Moses ... became the wifei of Nathan Meyer de founder of and to this alliance it was partly due that MosesMontefiore was ahle to retire early front business with an ample In 1812 became Gabay or of the Portuguese ... were the subject of barbarous excited by the French consul on the astounding pretext that they had mur dered a French priest in order to mingle his blood with their Sir MosesMontefiore obtained from ... equality of religious rights and permission to hold Thia lutter privilege was doubly because it evident to Sir ..."

"...in the The funeral of Sir MosesMontefiore was as unostentatious as the countless deeds of charity which enriched hie noble Of the 22 pall bearers at Abraham Lincoln only seven are now them John now a resident of Lord ... triumphed in The reelected Marcellus la a big and Frank who elected la Four thousand new cholera In Spain yesterday the disease has now made pearance In gay and the march of death goes on The venerable Long ... John one of Illinois distinguished Congressmen In ante bellum proposes to erect a heroic statue of himself In his burial lot In at a cost of He may well call it tor John is one ol the tallest ... Hampshire is the champion state for For the past two years a bounty of ten cents has been paid by the State for the tall of every woodchuck not killed on The result..."

About Moses Haim Montefiore

Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, Kt (24 October 1784 - 28 July 1885) was one of the most famous British Jews of the 19th century. Montefiore's 100th birthday was celebrated as a national event in Britain and by Jews all over the world. His birthdays, activities and death were closely covered in the British press of the time.

Sir Moses Haim Montefiore was a banker , financier, philanthropist, Sheriff of London and determined defender of human rights. Sir Moses Montefiore's extreme largess, fearless activism on behalf of world Jewry was immeasurable. He donated large sums of money to promote industry, education and health amongst the Jewish community in Palestine. In 1839, Sir Moses Montefiore had petitioned the Khedive of Egypt for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Theodore Herzl's contribution was to make this dream a reality and establish a unified Zionist movement . Sir Moses Montefiore's beneficence essentially helped lay the foundation for modern west Jerusalem.

Sir Moses Montefiore was knighted in 1938 by Queen Victoria and received a baronetcy in 1846 in recognition of his services to humanitarian causes on behalf of the Jewish people.

The Montefiore Crest:

The Montefiore family like many English Sephardi families originally descended from Marrano families from Spain, Portugal, Mexico and others places. The Montefiore Family came to England in the 18th Century from Italy. They took their name from the village of Montefiore in Italy.

The first Montefiore was Judah Leon Montefiore the son of Joseph Leon who was from a converso family in Mexico. Joseph Leon's parents were Jorge Almeida and Leonor Nunes Leon de Carvajal the sister of Luis de Carvajal (Joseph Lombroso). Joseph escaped from Mexico in the 1590's with his Carvajal uncles.

Judah Leon Montefiore married Rachel Olivietti and it is from them that the numerous lines of the Montefiore family descend. Many of the English Montefiore families descend from Moses Vita Montefiore who came from Italy to England. He and his wife Esther Hannah Racah had a large family of 17 children. His most famous grandson was Sir Moses Montefiore.

Sir Moses Montefiore:

Montefiore was born in Livorno, Italy in 1784.[1] He began his career as an apprentice to a firm of grocers and tea merchants. He later left for London, and became one of the twelve "Jew brokers" in the City of London. There he went into business with his brother Abraham, and their firm gained a high reputation.

In 1812, Moses Montefiore married Judith Cohen(1784-1862), daughter of Levi Barent Cohen. Her sister, Henriette (or Hannah) (1791-1866), married Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777-1836), for whom Montefiore's firm acted as stockbrokers. Nathan Rothschild headed the family's banking business in Britain, and the two brothers-in-law became business partners. Montefiore retired from his business in 1824, and used his time and fortune for communal and civic responsibilities. Physically imposing at 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), He was elected Sheriff of London in 1837 and served until 1838.

Though somewhat lax in religious observance in his early life, after his first visit to the Holy Land in 1827, he became a strictly observant Jew. He was even in the habit of traveling with a personal shohet (ritual slaughterer), to ensure that he would have a ready supply of kosher meat. His determined opposition played an important role in limiting the growth of the Reform Movement in England.

In 1831 Montefiore purchased a country estate with twenty-four acres on the East Cliff of the then fashionable seaside town of Ramsgate. The property had previously been a country house of Queen Caroline, when still Princess of Wales. It had then been owned by Marquess Wellesley, a brother of the Duke of Wellington.[4]

Soon afterwards, Montefiore purchased the adjoining land and commissioned his cousin, architect David Mocatta, to design a private synagogue, known as the Montefiore synagogue. It opened with a grand public ceremony in 1833. [4]

Montefiore never had children. He died in 1885, at the age of 100.

Communal leadership

Montefiore synagogue and tomb of Montefiore in Ramsgate, England

After retiring from business in 1824, Montefiore devoted the rest of his exceptionally long life to philanthropy. [5]He was president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews from 1835-1874, a period of 39 years, the longest tenure ever, and member of Bevis Marks Synagogue.

In business, he was an innovator, investing in the supply of piped gas for street lighting to European cities via the Imperial Continental Gas Association. He was among the founding consortium of the Alliance Life Assurance Company, and a Director of the Provincial Bank of Ireland. Highly regarded in the City, he was elected as Sheriff of the City of London in 1836, and knighted by Queen Victoria in 1837.

From retirement until the day he died, he devoted himself to philanthropy and alleviating the distress of Jews all over the world. The details of his journeys overseas are well-documented. He went to the Sultan of Turkey in 1840 to liberate from prison ten Syrian Jews of Damascus arrested after a blood libel; to Rome in 1858 to try and free the Jewish youth Edgardo Mortara, baptised by his Catholic nurse and kidnapped by functionaries of the Catholic Church; to Russia in 1846 and 1872; to Morocco in 1864 and to Romania in 1867. It was these missions that made him a folk hero of near mythological proportions among the oppressed Jews of Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Levant.

Little is known about his public and political life in general Victorian society. Indicative of his civic and society standing, Montefiore is mentioned in Charles Dickens' diaries, in the personal papers of George Eliot, and in James Joyce’s novel Ulysses. It is known that he had contacts with non-conformists and social reformers in Victorian England. He was active in public initiatives aimed at alleviating the persecution of minorities in the Middle East and elsewhere, and he worked closely with organisations that campaigned for the abolition of slavery. A Government loan raised by the Rothschilds and Montefiore in 1835 enabled the British Government to compensate plantation owners and thus abolish slavery in the Empire.

Montefiore's 100th birthday was celebrated as a national event in his adopted homeland, Britain and by Jews all over the world. His birthdays, activities and death were closely covered in the British press of the time.

Montefiore’s life was also inextricably bound up with the town of Ramsgate, Kent, on the southeastern coast of England. In the 1830s he and Judith had bought East Cliff Lodge, a country estate (then) adjacent to the town, very much in the manner of the Victorian Jewish gentry. He played an important role in Ramsgate affairs, and one of the local ridings still bears his name. In 1873 a local newspaper mistakenly ran his obituary. "Thank God to have been able to hear of the rumour," he wrote to the editor, "and to read an account of the same with my own eyes, without using spectacles." The town celebrated his 99th and his 100th birthday in great style, and every local charity (and church) benefited from his philanthropy. At East Cliff Lodge he established a Sephardi yeshiva (Judith Lady Montefiore College) after the death of his wife in 1862. On the grounds he built the elegant, Regency architecture Montefiore Synagogue and mausoleum modeled on Rachel's Tomb outside Bethlehem (whose refurbishment and upkeep he had paid for). Judith was laid to rest there in 1862, and Montefiore himself was buried there in 1885. In recent years, the site has become a source of controversy as real-estate developers are eyeing it for commercial development.

Philanthropy in the Holy Land

Jewish philanthropy and the Holy Land were at the center of Montefiore's interests. He traveled there by carriage and ship seven times, sometimes accompanied by his wife. He visited for the first time in 1827, followed by visits in 1838, 1849, 1855, 1857, 1866, and 1875. He made his last trip at the age of 91. Montefiore donated large sums of money to promote industry, education and health. Montefiore left an indelible mark on the Jerusalem landscape with the Moses Montefiore Windmill in Yemin Moshe, named after him, which was the first Jewish neighborhood built outside the Old City walls. The funding came from the estate of an American Jew, Judah Touro, who appointed Montefiore executor of his will. The project, bearing the hallmarks of nineteenth century artisanal revival, aimed to promote productive enterprise in the Yishuv. The builders were brought over from England.

Montefiore windmill in Yemin Moshe

These activities were part of a broader program to enable the Jews of Palestine to become self supporting in anticipation of the establishment of a Jewish homeland. In addition to the windmill (to provide cheap flour to poor Jews), he built a printing press and textile factory, and helped to finance several agricultural colonies. He also attempted to acquire land for Jewish cultivation, but was hampered by Ottoman restrictions on land sale to non-Muslims. Seal of the "Kerem Moshe Montefiore uYehudit" Society in Jerusalem ("Vinyard of Moses and Judith Montefiore" Society in Jerusalem)

Following a devastating cholera outbreak in Jerusalem in 1861 due to overcrowding, Montefiore built Mishkenot Sha'ananim outside the Old City. Living outside the city walls was dangerous at the time, due to lawlessness and bandits. Montefiore offered financial inducement to encourage poor families to move there. Later on, Montefiore established the two Knesset Yisrael neighborhoods, one for Sephardic Jews, one for Ashkenazim, which were even further away.

A major source of information about the Yishuv, or Jewish community in Palestine, during the 19th century is a sequence of censuses commissioned by Montefiore, in 1839, 1849, 1855, 1866 and 1875. The censuses attempted to list every Jew individually, together with some biographical and social information (such as their family structure, place of origin, and degree of poverty).

Although Montefiore only spent a few days in Jerusalem, the 1827 visit changed his life. He resolved to increase his religious observance and to attend synagogue on Shabbat, as well as Mondays and Thursdays when the Torah is read. While his observance of Jewish law was not as strict in his younger years (evidenced by Judith’s descriptions of the meals they enjoyed in inns along the south coast of England on their honeymoon in 1812), from then on, he lived a life of piety and Jewish observance.

The Jews of Palestine referred to their patron as "ha-Sar Montefiore" (Minister Montefiore), a title perpetuated in Hebrew literature and song.

Commemoration

The Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York is named for him. On the second floor of the East Wing, there is a bust of Montefiore. A branch of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania also bears his name.

A number of synagogues were named in honor of Sir Moses, including the 1913 Montifiore Institute, now preserved as the Little Synagogue on the Prairie, and Temple Moses Montefiore in Marshall, Texas, the first Reform temple in East Texas.

Anecdotes

Montefiore was renowned for his quick and sharp wit. A popularly-circulated anecdote, possibly apocryphal, relates that at a dinner party he was once seated next to a nobleman who was known to be an anti-Semite. The nobleman told Montefiore that he had just returned from a trip to Japan, where "they have neither pigs nor Jews." Montefiore is reported to have responded immediately, "in that case, you and I should go there, so it will have a sample of each" (a similar anecdote is told of Israel Zangwill.)[6]

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Born in Livorno, Italy, raised in London. At 19 yrs old became one of only twelve Jewish stockbrokers. Retired at 40 yrs old. Then devoted to his family and philanthropic causes. In 1837 was elected sheriff of London and was knighted by Queen Victoria.

Sir Moses Montefiore registered his arms in 1819 (Argent a cedar-tree rising from rocks proper, on a chief azure a dagger erect proper pommel and hilt or of the first between two mullets of six points of the last), based on the family badge embroidered on an Ark curtain presented to the synagogue of Ancona by an ancestor in 1635. In 1831 he was allowed to add to the crest a banner inscribed with the word Jerusalem in Hebrew, to commemorate a pilgrimage. In 1841, he was granted the privilege of supporters by Queen Victoria, although he was still only a knight bachelor. The supporters were a lion guardant or and a stag proper, each supporting a flagstaff thereon hoisted a pennon forked with the word Jerusalem in Hebrew. He became a baronet in 1846 and died in 1885.

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The Sephardi financier, philanthropist, and Jewish communal leader Moses Montefioree, perhaps the most famous British Jew of the nineteenth century, was born in 1784 in Livorno during a visit there by his parents, who were Livornese-born residents of London. He was raised in the British capital, and later became one of London’s twelve “Jew brokers.” In 1812 he married Judith Cohen and thus became brother-in-law and later stockbroker to Nathan Mayer Rothschild. Montefiore retired from his business activities in 1824 and devoted the rest of his long life to communal and civic undertakings.

Between 1827 and 1874, Montefiore visited Palestine seven times—no mean feat in the nineteenth century—and was deeply involved with the welfare of the country’s Jewish inhabitants. He acquired land for the Palestinian Jewish community (the Old Yishuv) and set up industrial enterprises with the idea of making the community more productive. The Yemin Moshe quarter in Jerusalem, with its famous windmill, was constructed largely because of his efforts and named after him. It had its origins in the Mishkenot Shaʾananim (Abodes of Tranquility) almshouse and was the first quarter outside the walls of the Old City.

Montefiore’s enormous energies were devoted to the welfare of Jewish communities everywhere. He played a major role in bringing the plight of the Jews of Muslim countries to the attention of the wider world. His diplomatic interventions on behalf of remote Jewish communities were aided by the power of Great Britain and by his close relations with the sources of power. Queen Victoria was fond of him, and knighted him on the occasion of her first visit to the City of London. He was the dominant figure in the English Jewish community and was president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews almost uninterruptedly from 1835 to 1874.

One of Montefiore’s more notable interventions took place during the famous Damascus Affair of 1840, when a blood libel charge was leveled at Damascene Jewry, and the community appealed to their Western coreligionists. A meeting called in July 1840 in London’s Mansion House led to Montefiore and others being sent as mediators to plead with Muḥammad ʿAlī, the autonomous viceroy of Egypt, who at the time controlled Syria. The delegation arrived in Alexandria in August and achieved the release of the nine Jewish prisoners who were still alive, as well as official recognition of their innocence. The delegation then went to Istanbul, where they managed to extract from Sultan ʿAbd al-Majīd a firman (edict) declaring that the blood libel was a calumny.

Another notable intervention by Montefiore on behalf of Jews in the Islamic world came about in 1863, when the situation in Morocco was particularly precarious. Despite his advanced age, Montefiore traveled into the Moroccan interior with a delegation of British Jews, including Haim Guedalla, who was himself of Moroccan ancestry and related to Sir Moses by marriage, to negotiate with the Alawi sultan Mawlāy Muḥammad IV in Marrakesh. Following the visit, Mawlāy Muḥammad promulgated an edict (dahir) on February 5, 1864, which promised to treat his Jewish subjects justly and protect them from oppression (text in Stillman, pp. 371–373). Even though the edict was not widely respected, its existence contributed to the long-term improvement of the situation of Moroccan Jewry.

Sir Moses’s efforts in the Muslim world were not always successful. In 1863, as president of the Board of Deputies, he received letters from the Jews of Sanʿa, Yemen, which he forwarded to the foreign secretary, Earl Russell, with a cover letter describing the Jews’ plight: “women are publicly violated in the presence of their husbands; aged and honourable members of the community are compelled to collect the excrement of dogs from the streets amid the jeers and insults of the Mahomedan; and the Jews are spoiled, insulted and tortured, until many of them have killed themselves in despair.” A few months later, after asking the India Office to intervene through the governor of Aden, Russell replied that “the political agent at Aden is unable to do anything on behalf of these unfortunate people. He describes the state of the city of Sanʿa as being one of anarchy and lewdness for some years past; and he apprehends that if it were known he was taking any steps on behalf of the Jews, their position would be rendered even worse than it is now.”

Montefiore died in 1885 at the age of one hundred. His main contributions were probably in the development of the Jews of Palestine. He gave the community generous financial and practical help for more than half a century. He helped found institutions that were of real and lasting benefit to the Jews of the holy cities. His generosity was one of the factors responsible for the considerable growth of the Palestinian community during this period. His role in international situations such as the Damascus Affair was of major significance, for in concerting Jewish political, financial, and moral assistance to remote communities, he helped prepare the ground for the much wider political cooperation among Jews that was to emerge with political Zionism.